[Valin]

Fresh gunfire at Pakistan mosque
From correspondents in Islamabad
July 05, 2007

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22025263-1702,00.html

SEVERAL blasts were heard and heavy gunfire erupted today at a besieged mosque in the Pakistani capital as armoured personnel carriers moved towards the building.
Students from the Red Mosque and security forces were engaged in some of the most intense fighting since the crisis began on Tuesday, they said.

Local television reported that commandos had also encircled the compound in the heart of Islamabad. Cobra helicopter gunships made repeated low passes overhead.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Just curious—is there no Koranic prohibition against cross-dressing?

[Valin]

Pak Islamic scholars flay radical Lal Masjid clerics

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=380980&sid=SAS&sname=

Islamabad, July 05: Islamic scholars in Pakistan have flayed the radical clerics of the Lal Masjid for using innocent students for their ulterior “objectives” and defaming Islam by trying to impose their own brand of religion.

The religious scholars rejected a claim made by Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was caught trying to sneak out wearing a burqa when hundreds of students holed up inside the radical Lal Masjid complex surrendered to the police yesterday, that he had an indication from god to launch jihad and impose Sharia in the country.

Such claims had no religious standings and they could not be used to legitimise “illegal and un-Islamic” actions, Maulana Javed Ahmad Ghamidi was quoted telling private channel Geo News.

“Only the Quran, Sunnah and Hadith are the sources to understand and interpret Islam,” he said, adding that the Lal Masjid mullahs were misguiding people and using innocent students for their “objectives”.

Maulana Rafi Usmai said the Lal Masjid clerics were not serving Islam and instead they were defaming it. He said Aziz’s claim had no importance, the Daily Times reported.

Majority of local clerics in Karachi were against the attitude and activities of the Jamia Hafsa and the Lal Masjid administration as they believed that their “unwise activities” were resulting in the defamation of Islam and madrassas in Pakistan.

“People like Ghazi have rendered irreparable loss to madaris as their activities would not only put seminaries under more internal and external pressures but would also create dissent among common people,” Mufti Abuzar of Karachi was quoted as saying by the news daily.

Bureau Report

[Valin]

Ping

[Puddleglum]

Muslimes need to start weeding their own garden. Can't be said enough. We'll never have the counter-intelligence to do what they could do if they truly valued their faith (and I think there has been a civil war within Islam for some time).

But I think generally they are too scared and slightly doubt their own arguments against violence, given their sacred text. Thus it is easier to hate the West.

[PGalt]

Security forces besieging a radical mosque in the Pakistani capital captured its top cleric Wednesday as he tried to sneak out of the complex in a woman’s burqa, and more than 1,000 of his followers surrendered.

Thanks for posting, Valin. Trickle down annihilation works!

[WilliamofCarmichael]

I think I am beginning to understand why radical Muslim men are so insistent that we accept the burqa — they need it more than the women.

[Robert357]

Bump;

Such a manly man.........to hid in womens clothes.

[TexKat]

An image taken from the Pakistan Television shows on Thursday, July 5, 2007, the chief cleric of radical Lal mosque Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was arrested by police, Wednesday in Islamabad, Pakistan, removing his veil. The chief cleric of a radical mosque was arrested and more than 1,000 of his followers surrendered Wednesday as troops backed by armored vehicles and helicopters tightened their siege of the complex, officials said. Female police officers searching women fleeing the mosque's seminary discovered Maulana Abdul Aziz under a black head-to-toe veil, said Khalid Pervez, the city's top administrator. (AP Photo/PTV)

Chief cleric of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque Maulana Abdul Aziz is seen in Islamabad Thursday, July 5, 2007 in this image made from TV. The captured leader of the radical mosque conceded Thursday that the nearly 1,000 followers still inside the government-besieged complex will not be able to hold out for much longer, indicating the standoff would end without violence. (AP Photo/Pakistan Television)

Children used as shields in Pakistan mosque: govt